UN secretary general urges deal in Burma

The UN secretary-general has urged Burma’s military government and its main pro-democracy party to reach an agreement under which the opposition party – led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi – will attend a constitution-drafting convention.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party said yesterday it will not attend the convention, which starts on Monday, because the junta has refused to release Suu Kyi from house arrest and accept other demands.

The ruling junta said the convention would go on without the NLD – and that Suu Kyi and her deputy will remain under house arrest.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was disappointed that a deal had not been struck so the NLD and some ethnic parties would join the convention, said Annan’s spokesman in New York.

The stalemate is a major blow to efforts toward ending the political deadlock in the Southeast Asian nation, which has been military-ruled since 1962.

The current regime came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising. It called elections in 1990, but refused to cede power when the NLD won by a landslide. Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent democracy campaign.

The junta said in a statement that the convention would proceed with other delegates, and that Suu Kyi’s party had made “unreasonable demands”.

Suu Kyi and party Vice Chairman Tin Oo, both under house arrest, would remain detained “for the time being to ensure the peaceful development of the National Convention,” it said.

Burma’s military government has described the constitutional meeting as the first step in a seven-stage “roadmap” to democracy. But observers say the convention would hold little value without Suu Kyi’s party.

NLD Chairman Aung Shwe said that the government had turned down the party’s demand to reopen all its offices, release Suu Kyi ahead of the convention, and allow participants in the meeting to express their views freely.

The second biggest pro-democracy party, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, has said it won’t attend the meeting, as has the NLD-supporting Shan State Kokang Democratic Party.

Just seven small parties are expected to attend, along with representatives of civic society and some ethnic groups.

The junta organised a similar convention in 1993, but it collapsed after Suu Kyi’s party walked out in 1995, saying it was being forced to rubber-stamp the junta’s decisions.